Skype has thrown in the towel on its appeal of the German court conviction last year that it violated the GPL by not furnishing GPL2-covered source code with a Linux-based SMC Networks VoIP phone. The case was brought by Harald Welte of the gpl-violations.org watchdog operation.

According to heise online, Skype’s lawyers tried arguing that the GPL contravened German antitrust law but the German appeals court indicated it didn’t matter whether or not it was valid, Skype had no business using the software since no right were granted to the company. So it dropped the appeal.